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State College Area School District is working with other Centre County districts to implement a statewide program aimed at supporting students who experience traumatic events.
The SCASD School Board on Monday night heard an overview of Handle With Care, an initiative supported by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office that allows police to send a confidential message to school principals when a school-aged child has been present during a potentially traumatic incident requiring a law enforcement response.
No details of the incident are provided to the school, only a simple notification through a computer system that the student should be handled with care, so that staff are aware the child may need additional support and flexibility, Assistant Superintendent Jonathan Bucher said.
“The principal would simply get a notification saying, ‘Please treat the student with care. They are experiencing [something] and we’re not going to give you the details,'” Bucher said. “That principal would then go to the teachers, or in elementary, the primary teacher, and say, ‘The student had something that occurred. Please give them extra space and extra time if they’re not their normal selves. Please handle them with care.’ That’s pretty much the premise of this program.”
Handle With Care has already been implemented in about two dozen Pennsylvania counties.
All Centre County school districts and law enforcement agencies, including state police, are working together to launch the program locally, Bucher said, with a target date of Sept. 1. Administrative trainings are planned in the coming weeks, and schools will communicate with families about the program.
Examples of incidents that may result in Handle With Care notifications include house fires, domestic violence incidents, arrests of family members, drug overdoses, serious medical emergencies or other traumatic events where a child is present.
“This seems like an amazing program,” board member Jennifer Black said. “We might think, well, we already handle these kinds of things. But there are so many examples that the school district would never have any idea… When there’s a death in a family, that’s when we know. But so many of these things, we just would have no clue and the kid would come to school and have to do their best. So I really appreciate this. I think this is going to be a good program.”
School Resource Officer Matt Hertlein said the program is a positive step in connecting police and schools so that affected students can receive the support they need.
“Coming from patrol on nighttime, one of the biggest things we dealt with is family domestics,” Hertlein said. “So a lot of times we’d be out at someone’s house, we’d deal with the children there and once we left, it’s kind of sad to say, but we’re on to our next call. … Now we have a police social worker at our department who we will notify, but I think this is a big step just to notify the school, too. … The three words ‘handle with care,’ that’ll let the school know that child may need something extra.”
Superintendent Curtis Johnson added that school personnel will not pry for information about what occurred, only monitor student well-being and provide support as needed.
“It’s not intrusive,” Johnson said. “We’re not calling that student in and finding out what’s going on. If they elect to tell us, then we’ll bring in the necessary resources.”
